On the mountain named Montserrat, near Barcelona, in the
Catalonia region of Spain, a church now contains a 'miracle-
working' statue of the Madonna and Child known as
La Moreneta, that is: the dark little one.

Legend relates that the miraculous image was first known as
La Jerosolimitana (the native of Jerusalem), since it is
believed to have been carved in that city during the early days
of the church.

Another account, seemingly well-attested, indicates that the
image was moved to Montserrat in 718, to avoid the danger posed
by invading Saracens. The image disappears from the historical
record at this point, to reappear in a legend holding that
shepherds found the lost statue under supernatural guidance in
890:

While tending their flocks that night the shepherds were amazed
to see lights and to hear singing coming from the mountain. When
this was repeated, the shepherds reported the situation to their
priest, who investigated. When the priest also heard the singing
and saw the mysterious lights, he informed the Bishop, and he
also witnessed the phenomenon. The statue of Our Lady was
discovered in a cave and was brought out and placed in a small
church that was soon erected.

However, the statue presently kept at the Montserrat shrine [at
left] appears to have been introduced in the twelfth or
thirteenth century. Its Romanesque style is consistent with this
estimate. Beyond general style, the genre of the statue is
certainly that of an 'enthroned virgin', typical of the earliest
icons of Mary. On behalf of Madonna and Child representations,
Stephen Benko notes:

"It is well known that the iconography of Isis and [her son] Horus
was basically adopted by Christians when they started to portray
Mary and Jesus as Mother and Child."

Benko adds that Isis was sometimes "pictured as black."
These
observations indicate only a correlation, not a causal
relationship. They do not answer the question why the Montserrat
figures are black. Perhaps a lost statue of Isis was located by
ninth-century shepherds and assumed to be a Madonna and Child, in
spite of the dark features.

The present copy could have reproduced the general style with
adaptations to accommodate Romanesque taste. However, no less
likely is the theory that the present copy was modeled on the
Christian genre of the enthroned Virgin. Why then the black
color of the figures?

Perhaps it was done in imitation of earlier Christian Black
Madonnas which the sculptor had seen. This sounds plausible, but is
unsupported by hard data. Perhaps, it was inspired by the
commentaries on the Song of Songs ["I am black but
beautiful"] which were popular at that time. Again, we have no
evidence of this beyond the temporal coincidence of events. On
the negative side, Montserrat is located in Spain, not in France
where St. Bernard of Clairvaux and others produced well-known
commentaries on the Canticles. Perhaps the image was created
black to represent some esoteric religious symbolism. Ean Begg
notes that the Shrine of Montserrat is among the best candidates
for former sanctuaries for the Holy Grail. Further, in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries esoteric Christian sects
proliferated, though not primarily in Spain. Again, these are
correlations, not proofs. Perhaps Cruz is right:

the dark color of Our Lady of Montserrat is attributed to the
innumerable candles and lamps that have burned day and night
before the image.

In any case, certain facts may not be disputed. The statue has
always been considered one of the most celebrated images in
Spain. However, like Our Lady of Einsiedeln in Switzerland, its
popularity is limited to a regional rather than a universal
scope. Also, the shrine has received innumerable pilgrims over
the years, currently at the rate of at least one million per
year. This multitude includes secular and ecclesial rulers as
well as a number of canonized Saints. The most notable of these
was St. Ignatius of Loyola, who laid down his sword and embarked
on his religious mission "after spending a night praying before
the image," a miracle in the order of grace.

For further information on Our Lady of Montserrat, refer
to The Cult of the Black Virgin (1985) by Ean Begg;
Miraculous Images of Our Lady (1993) by Joan Carroll
Cruz; and The Virgin Goddess: Studies in the Pagan and
Christian Roots of Mariology (1993) by Stephen Benko.

This page, maintained by The Marian Library/International Marian Research Institute,
Dayton, Ohio 45469-1390, and created by
Michael P. Duricy
, was last modified
Wednesday, 03/26/2008 12:44:32 EDT
by
Victor Pennekamp
. Please send any comments to jroten1@udayton.edu.